When BioWare first announced the inclusion of multiplayer in ME3, gamers were puzzled. Some were afraid it would have nothing to do with the story of the game. Others were worried it would make the story cheesy. (I, for one, was afraid there would be multiple Commander Shepards on-screen, all trying to talk at the same time.) Thankfully, the multiplayer is actually nothing short of epic.
The basic premise of ME3’s multiplayer is war. While Shepard is busy completing missions in the single-player, he captures various key locations that must be protected after he leaves. Small, four-man groups of Special Ops soldiers (comprised of all races, human and alien) are sent in to hold the line against Reaper/Cerberus invasions.
Thus, the multiplayer is team-based survival. Four players are put together and dropped onto the map, which is one of the many locations that must be defended. Players must survive ten waves of vicious, unforgiving enemy onslaughts, then make their way to the extraction zone to successfully complete the mission. Additionally, in waves 3, 6 and 9, the players are given short-term objectives that must be completed in order to progress through the mission. Examples of these objectives include eliminating high-priority targets, recovering stolen data, securing and holding key positions, and retrieving important objects.
The multiplayer is incredibly entertaining and highly addictive (in a good way). Each player can play as any alien race and use any powers available, which is refreshing since Shepard and his powers are the same throughout the single-player story. The gameplay encourages cooperation as well as strategy. Rarely can one lone player burst into a room filled with armed hostiles and not be mortally wounded in the ensuing fight, unlike most fantastical Hollywood movies. Employing intelligent tactics is much more effective than claiming your family’s honor has been smeared and swearing solitary vengeance against an entire army. Should a player be incapacitated, the other players have a small amount of time to revive the downed person before he/she bleeds to death. Thus, the multiplayer is engaging mentally because there are many different situations that are thrown at the players, but there are many different strategies which can be used to adapt.
It seems I have finished covering all the basics of the Mass Effect trilogy and, accordingly, there will be no Part 6. I have explained to the best of my ability what this highly-respected, well-loved franchise is. Indeed, there is even more to it than what I have mentioned, including the awe-inspiring musical scores for each of the games, the many lovable characters not aforementioned, and all the downloadable content, which adds hours of gameplay to each game. This, however, is the purpose of Mass Effect. The purpose is to immerse the player in one of the most intricately crafted stories of all time and to give the player the opportunity to be directly responsible for the fate of an incredibly vast universe. This is what these games promise. And I promise that the Mass Effect games irrefutably deliver this amazing experience.
